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Day 3: U.S.-China Product Safety Summit

By CPSC Blogger on October 23, 2009

The U.S.-China Consumer Product Safety Summit is continuing today in the beautiful Chinese city of Shanghai.
CPSC’s main goal at the Summit is to highlight the importance of building U.S. safety standards into consumer products destined for the U.S. before they reach our ports.

That’s so important for all terrain vehicles – or ATVs – the focus of our discussions here today at the Summit. Yesterday, Chairman Tenenbaum and CPSC officials toured an ATV factory in Taizhou, Jiangsu. Today, CPSC Chairman Inez Tenenbaum and the CPSC team visited a motor vehicle quality inspection center in Shanghai that tests ATVs.

Chinese manufacturers are eager to learn more about the mandatory U.S. safety standard for ATVs and the requirement for an approved safety plan. That’s good news for consumers. These rules are in place for an important reason.

Off-road vehicles are extremely popular with American riders. But there is no consumer product that CPSC oversees that is involved in more fatalities than ATVs – about 900 per year.

While CPSC is working in China to improve the safety of ATVs, rider can also do their part to stay safe. Strap on your helmet and safety gear each and every time you ride, never ride with a passenger on an ATV intended for one person, never ride on a paved surface, and never let a child younger than 16 ride an adult sized ATV. Kids belong on youth ATVs that are specifically intended for their age. And take an ATV training course – those who take hands-on training suffer fewer injuries.

Later today, the team is headed to Beijing for a final day of meetings with AQSIQ, our counterpart safety agency in China, where CPSC will continue pressing the case for safer consumer products. CPSC is committed to protecting you and your family.

This address for this post is: http://www.cpsc.gov/onsafety/2009/10/chairmans-blog-from-china-day-3/